Instead of making larger incisions to gain necessary access as in open heart surgery, minimally invasive techniques allow your surgeon to access your heart and chest area through small (about 2.5-inch) incisions. Minimally invasive heart and chest surgery procedures allow surgeons to perform complex surgery on high-risk patients, the very elderly for whom open surgery may not be the best approach, or those requiring repeat procedures.

Minimally invasive heart surgery requires smaller incisions and typically allows you to recover more quickly than with open heart surgery. Some of the other benefits of minimally invasive techniques may include:

Shorter hospital stay

Less blood loss

Less pain after surgery

Less (and smaller) scarring

Quicker return to normal activity

Fewer complications

Decreased risk of infection

For more information on our robotic services, visit the Robotics page​.​

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Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System's subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano or Baylor Health Care System.